US Plummets On World Press Freedom Ranking

Jeremiah Cornelius writes "Reporters Without Borders released its 2011-2012 global Press Freedom Index. The indicators for press freedom in the U.S. are dramatic, with a downward movement from 27th to 47th in the global ranking, from the previous year. Much of this is correlated directly to the arrest and incarceration of American journalists covering the 'Occupy' protest movements in New York and across the country. 'This is especially troubling as we head into an election year which is sure to spark new conflicts between police and press covering rallies, protests and political events.' Only Chile, who dropped from 33 to 80, joined the U.S. in falling over 100% of their previous ranking. Similarly, Chile was downgraded for 'freedom of information violations committed by the security forces during student protests.'"

Comments

Re:That will happen ...

[tfiedler]

Manning was a tool for Wikileaks and a soldier who violated the oath he took when he enlisted. He deserves to be executed for his treason, not celebrated.

Re:Some kind of irony

[MyLongNickName]

Nope. This press freedom index is simply a popularity contest, not anything close to representing a standard way of measuring freedom. The press in the US is much freer than many of its counterparts in Europe. Yet folks have an axe to grind with the US and ding them with their "surveys". Ridiculous to the extreme.

Re:Since when

[aardvarkjoe]

does freedom of the press have anything to do with freedom to go anywhere you want? Freedom of the press is about publishing without interference, not about being able to go anywhere one wants. What happened to the journalists trying to cover OWS was no good, but it wasn't a freedom of the press issue.

This is the same story that this organization publishes every year. Essentially, they say that by not giving "reporters" special dispensation to break the law, that the U.S. is infringing on the "freedom of the press."